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Copyright 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
By St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff came up with a heck of an idea: Instead of giving a little bit of money to almost any community that asks for it, why not prioritize those requests and give the money to the cities most at risk of being attacked by terrorists?
It’s hard to say what’s most distressing about this epiphany: that it took nearly three years; that by the time the insight came, billions of dollars had already been wasted; or that the people responsible for this bright idea expect us to trust them with our security.
Comic incompetence has become something of a tradition at DHS, the agency that, under its previous director, Tom Ridge, brought us color-coded “threat advisories” and developed the “duct tape” personal protection initiative. As a series of new reports makes clear, that tradition continues.
In an audit released last month, Homeland Security Inspector General Richard L. Skinner characterized the Federal Emergency Management Agency as “overburdened.” He questioned whether the department has enough information to avoid fraud in the contracts it oversees to rebuild the Gulf Coast. And he criticized the agency for its handling of billions of dollars in so-called first responder grants, which go to local police and fire departments.
The same week that audit was released, a group of House Democrats issued its own report charging that the Department of Homeland Security has failed to follow through on 33 promised improvements in border security, infrastructure protection and other issues. The report notes that a list of high-priority targets, which should have been in place by now in order to help prioritize protection efforts, has not yet been compiled.
As vast and as open as our country is, protecting America is a difficult job. It’s even more difficult when the government agency responsible has been cobbled together from what had been 22 separate agencies, each with its own history and culture.
The job will never be easy. But it would be easier if Congress and the president hadn’t turned Homeland Security into a political cookie jar. Predictably, lawmakers have become consumed by appearances, making sure their home turf got Homeland Security money, for example, rather than making sure it is spent effectively.
Three years after the agency was formed, and four years after the 9/11 attacks, the government has yet to provide first responders with radios so police and firefighters can communicate with each other in emergencies. That’s not progress, and it’s not acceptable.